The plurality of co-existing business models: Investigating the complexity of value drivers

• Provides empirical evidence for a plurality of co-existing business models in single firms
• Plurality better explains the complexity of value drivers.
• Challenges the assumption that firms have (or should have) a single business model
• Develops a typology of business models in an industry
• Business models are important for developing middle-range theory in strategic marketing.

Business models are key tools to provide a means of operationalizing theories about firm and industry level strategies, and to understand the nature of value drivers and the role of marketing in these processes. In this paper we assess empirical evidence for a plurality of co-existing business models within firms by developing a typology of business models in a single industry, the New Zealand Wine industry. We examine the co-existence of the types of models using in-depth analysis of seven case firms that vary in size and ownership. Our findings show how value creation is done in the context of interactions and they provide support for multiple business models that co-exist alongside each other with varying degrees of separation. Plurality better explains the complexity of value drivers and strategies for firms in this rapidly changing industry environment, where businesses are under extreme financial pressure. Our findings challenge assumptions that firms have (or should have) a single business model thus allowing a plurality of approaches within a single firm or industry that shifts the focus from implementing strategy A or B or C, to implementing strategy A and B and/or C.